God’s Love Aright

Sermon Luke 3:7-18 December 13, 2015 3^rd Sunday Advent

God’s Love Aright

The roads are rough. The way to where we want to go is under construction. The detours along the way seem endless. Isn’t there a direct route anywhere? Can’t there be a smooth straight path, perhaps a 12 lane highway void of traffic, with guard rails made of crash resistant materials and weather proof surfaces to assure the traveler of hazard free journeys.

That’s the kind of wish we make about life.

That’s the kind of wish we are making just to get all the presents under the Christmas tree and make it through the holidays unscathed.

But, here we are on the third Sunday of Advent listening to a wild locust eater yelling his way out of the wilderness and accosting the crowds with some unfriendly language. There he was calling people names and passing judgment upon them.

Who did he think he was?

Who do we think he was?

He accuses them of being comfortable in their birthright of faith. Being born into the faith of God has left them complacent and without conviction to be committed to the calling of God for their life.

John the Baptist is pushing the people hard about examining their lives. He is pushing them hard because he says he is preparing them for the coming Savior, the Messiah. He says he is getting them ready.

But, you and I both know he appears at the river Jordan living his life as a prophet at the time that Jesus is already an adult. He is making this ruckus thirty years after Jesus was born in the manger.

So, why are we hearing these words on the third Sunday of Advent when we are on the road to Bethlehem? We are headed to see the sweet baby Jesus in the manger. We are on our way to see the tender child, soft and squishy, precious, and lovely. We sing about the baby and that is who we plan to see and feel good about. Not a grown man, not an adult. We’re not going to Bethlehem to see the grown up Jesus. We want our path to the manger to be smooth and without detour or trouble.

But, the road to Bethlehem is rough and rocky and there is nothing smooth about it.

Mary and Joseph had to face challenges that young people shouldn’t have to face. They struggled with decisions and they had no money, and then they had to travel far at a time in their life where they should have been at home comfortable preparing for a child. Yet, there they were on a rough and rocky road headed to Bethlehem.

And so, how has it been for us?

Has it also been a rough and rocky road trying to make our way to the manger? Every year we think it will be different, and yet every year there are new challenges along the way.

And, this is why we are called to hear the words of the prophet and be ready to receive the Savior at his birth. Because at the birth of Jesus we experience God’s love Aright!

As we witnessed the four baptisms here today, we were witnesses to God’s Love Aright. These young people have made a commitment to Christ.

They have accepted the love of God in their lives and know they belong to God forever. They were firm about their desire to be baptized and they were firm about their love for God and desire to live in God’s love.

So, here we are reminded to consider the meaning of our own baptism as we have witnessed theirs.

Are we committed to God’s claim on us?

What do we need to do to reprioritize our lives?

How can we live focused on the love of God?

Are we asking the same question as the crowd asked John the Baptist?

What should we do?

Because, at this time in our lives as we witness a crazed world around us, we are asking that very question, “what should we do?”

I shared with these youth that baptism doesn’t stop the questions of faith. It is the beginning of faith. It is the steps where we can confidently come to God and ask, what should we do.

John gives the people answers, lots of them. He gives them answers so they can figure out how to live their lives as faithful disciples.

And these are exactly the words we want to hear too!

We want to know how to live faithful lives.

We want to know how to live in ways that honor the baby we worship in the manger. And we really want to live knowing we are being authentic Christians.

And so we who are on the road of life, that is by no means an easy road, have some ways to consider how we travel.

So today we hear about just a few things to get us started on the right road. We are called to share, to be fair, to care, and to be honest. These are ways we bear fruit. These are ways we live out the faith we claim.

Take the power of God with you as you travel. Let the power of God through your baptism move you to share, care, to be fair and to be honest in all of the ways of your life. This is how we live God’s Love Aright. Friends, you belong to God, you always have, and you always will, and the mark of Christ is upon you. Amen.

Sacred Moment.

Sacred Moment.

A moment of the sacred entered my life on Sunday.

He was three years old.

He looked at me from a distance and wasn’t really sure if he should approach. I saw him clutch his daddy’s hand a little tighter. I squatted down so we could be face to face and I said hello.

He smiled at me.

Barely verbal, he said hello back.

I told him how glad I was to see him.

I stood back up and greeted his father and the man who came to be his Godparent. They appeared as if entering the church was not a common or familiar practice for them. The father was kind and genuine. I could tell both men were determined to be there for this child. Both men were set to offer this child into the hand of God.

We had very little time before the service was to begin.

We had not spoken before.

We had not done the usual pastoral visit,

nor the usual meeting with the child.

I had received a phone call earlier in the week from the child’s grandparents’ expressing their son’s desire for his child. SO, with the permission of the elders, we forged ahead to prepare for a Sunday baptism of a child we had not met and the father they barely knew nor had I met.

I was convinced that this was a moment Jesus would honor.

The little boy was ready to run and discover as he tried to tear away from daddy’s grip. I said to him, “Do you want to play with toys?” His eyes lit up as he said to daddy, “Toys, toys!” We found our way upstairs to the nursery and there he played with fire engines and everything that made noise. Through the sirens I ran quickly through the liturgy for dad and Godparent. I shared the questions I would ask and the expected response from each of them. I again thanked them for choosing baptism for this child. It was all in such a rush, not the way we would expect it to be done right. But, what is right really? Did Philip hesitate at the request of the eunuch? I think not.

I looked at the little boy and said, “Let’s go downstairs and I’ll show you the water and everything that will happen this morning.” We went downstairs and I showed him the pitcher that held the warm water to be poured into the font. He pulled away unsure and not too keen on water. I held out the pitcher and again offered it to him to touch and then I gently took his hand and put his fingers in the water. He looked up at me with big eyes and he touched the water again dipping his fingers deeper. We walked to the font and I spoke of what would happen next and how the water would be placed on his head and, if he let me, I would lift him up and hold him.

Time was running out and it was clear we needed to empty the sanctuary and allow the congregants to gather. We squeezed through the side door and we parted ways for the time being.

The moment in worship arrived and I called the family forward and all the children to be witnesses to “remember our baptism as we witness today’s baptism.”

The little boy was filled with energy. He saw the baptism candle and tried to blow it out as one would blow out a birthday candle. He took the wooden cross to be given to him at the end and gripped it in his hand. He reached around dad and looked at the children seated there. He looked up at all those grown-ups staring down at him.

He smiled.

All through the long liturgy and the many words and prayers he held the hands of several people. He looked at them and eyed them with a wondering heart.

And then the moment came to pour the water.

Together we took the pitcher in hand and as we poured together I prayed the prayer of the presence of the Holy Spirit over the waters. It seemed in slow motion as we intentionally emptied the pitcher together into the font.

We eyed each other with satisfaction.

God had united our hearts and made us one in Christ.

I reached to pick him and he went willingly into my arms. And here the little child who was so afraid of water received the water poured over him. His eyes were mesmerized and so large.

He didn’t say a word.

“I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen!”

He was motionless,

still,

ever so quiet.

Again, we looked at each other as I said the words. “This promise is for you, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him has eternal life…you too will grow to love God as God loves you.”

In my arms he stayed as I walked with him all around the large sanctuary and as I shared the story of home and the place to belong with God and this congregation.

                                                             I believe he saw God that day.

                                                     I believe he saw the real face of God,

                                                             his eyes and his body showed it to me. 

                                                          Yes, I’m sure he saw God that day.

The only other time I have seen this awe on the face of a child was when my son

was three years old. We had stepped inside a cathedral in the midst of mass. And there was the priest wearing white and waving his arms with the liturgy. We stood there for some time taken in with the worship. And then with respect as to not disturb the rest of worship since we were tourists we quietly departed. As we came out my son looked at me with enormous eyes. He face was almost drained of color as he stared at me. He said to me, “I saw God.” I said, “You did? Where?” He responded, “He was inside wearing white and waving his arms.

I saw God.”

I do not doubt that he saw God that day.

Just as I do not doubt this little boy saw God.

                        Because I too caught in the holy moment of Sacrament,

                                           not only experienced God,

                                                              but

                                                         I saw God.

             A moment of the sacred entered my life on Sunday.

                                                          He was three years old.

Waters of Life

Sermon Exodus 2: 1-10 June 7, 2015 Ordinary time-communion/baptism

Waters of Life

 Last Sunday during the church picnic we had a trivia game and one of the categories was Bible and there was an option of Old Testament or New Testament, well the groups always chose New Testament-so dear friends you might note that today’s lesson and for  the next three Sundays comes from the Old Testament. Coincidence perhaps-and then again perhaps not. J

Our story begins today in Exodus. You may all well know that the previous book Genesis ended with Joseph, the son of Jacob, being the hero and the rescuer as he delivered the people of Israel, the sons of Jacob, from famine by bringing them down to Egypt. Joseph welcomed his family and so did all the people of Egypt welcome these immigrants to a foreign land. They were well received and were given a new home. And we enter into the book of Exodus, 400 years later, 400 years from the welcome of immigrants and opening up their society to those in need, to turn and to close themselves to these Israelites-these Hebrews. The welcomed people are now the oppressed and living in slavery.

Now most of you are going to tell me this morning that you know all about the story of Moses. And most of you know the story well because we have all watched Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments. And this is good news if we remember the story.

The people of Israel were a people familiar with chaotic times. They had threats surround them and times of helplessness and serious conditions befell them. Their history speaks of the need for God to intervene in the most chaotic and horrendous times. This story of Moses and his leading of the people out of Egypt is the core of the faith of the Jewish people. God the great God is the one who rescues his people.

Every story has its beginning and the beginning of the Moses story is essential to the Jewish faith and its spirituality. There is much here about the sovereignty (the BIGness) of God about how God intervenes through the lives of people who do not even know God or acknowledge God’s existence.

There is much here about how a life of purpose comes unwittingly through the hands of others and how they mold and shape and prepare those in their care for the greater things of life.

Imagine if we were aware of the impact we had on the lives of people with whom we work or care for or encounter on a daily basis?

Think perhaps even how we might have been the instrument of being the ‘angel unaware’ as we assisted someone by the roadside or took in an animal needing shelter or simply smiled at a person in line at the grocery store.

There were so many players to make this event come to pass; the midwives, the mother, the sister, the Egyptian princess, all who acted from the heart, their hearts which were filled with love and concern for life. This princess who rescues the Hebrew baby ends up being the giver of life to the one who ultimately rescues all of God’s people from oppression, from slavery. Moses is known as the redeemer of the Jewish people.

The story works through many facets of planned and unexpected turns for the sake of the life of Moses.

His mother makes a basket for him and places it in the reeds near where she is aware the princess comes on a daily basis to wash. The reeds I assume are much like the shallows we have around here, where one can walk through them waist high. The princess has much autonomy in the Egyptian culture as well as authority to execute contracts and secure personnel.

She does so with the mother of Moses who then becomes the caretaker of her own son in the palace of the pharaoh. We can be sure that she nurtured his mind and character and instilled in him the values and traditions cherished by his people.

The salvation of Moses from certain death through the acts of others on his behalf points again to the power of God at work to bring about the salvation of all of God’s people. The very act of placing Moses in the waters is to put him in a vulnerable spot.

How could a mother do that?

How could mother put her child vulnerable to the elements of the water?

We who are the people who live between the waters know very well what it is like to be vulnerable on the water.

 We know about storms and seas and wind.

We know about going under and coming up again.

We know about how we are at the mercy of the elements when we place ourselves on the water.

Yet, this mother knew that to be vulnerable enough to place her child in the water was to place him in the hands of God, the Creator and giver of life.

We do the same through the act of baptism.

We place our children in the waters of baptism

placing them in the hands of God

and offering them up to new life in Christ.

In this story God is not mentioned on purpose. Because the writers of this story knew that the people hearing it and reading it would have also known all those other regional stories about babies in the water and how the gods intervened. God’s name is withheld to remind the people of the power of God fully present in the most vulnerable times. Again, pointing out the BIG God, the sovereign God we have who provides for us and uses the least likely to fulfill God’s will.

There are people who God has put in place to be vulnerable and take risks.

It happened in my life.

People came alongside and took the risk to invite.

A young girl who had no use for God,

who had no faith in God,

who had little faith experience

and people chose to invite,

despite the negative response.

And so after a yes to the invitation

and several weeks that followed

and continued yesses to invitations,

I too became vulnerable

to the place God had brought me

opening up to a new way of life with Christ.

And the most powerful sealing moment

was when the priest

shed his ecclesiastical robes

and became Christ for me.

He knew I was not baptized

nor would I have the opportunity

to be confirmed

or to join the church

or to be in full communion

and he became vulnerable to the moment

and he offered the bread and the cup to me

and my life was forever changed.

To be vulnerable is to take the risk that God will not only carry us on the water but will take us through the waters into new life.

To be vulnerable is to trust ourselves in the hand of God!

Offering ourselves to God,

to allow God to breathe the breath of life in us,

to allow the waters to flow freely,

is to say, “Take my Life and let it be all for Thee…”

Take my life, Lord.

Amen.